The Browns signed quarterback Seneca Wallace to a three-year contract Thursday night, according to a league source.

An eight-year veteran, Wallace is well versed in the West Coast offense to be installed by new coach Pat Shurmur and can also serve as a mentor to second-year quarterback Colt McCoy. Wallace played eight years in Seattle, seven of those under then-coach Mike Holmgren, now the Browns president. Wallace was traded to Cleveland last March.

"We want Seneca back,'' Browns general manager Tom Heckert said last week at the NFL Scouting Combine. "He knows that. I think he’s at least open to it.

"He got a chance to play and played pretty well and got hurt. We’ll see how that works out.”

Shurmur said, "I’m a Seneca fan. He’s a West Coast quarterback. I’m not thinking about the Wildcat. He can line up under center. He’s done it for a lot of years in this system.”

Wallace went 1-3 as a starter last season and was in the midst of his best game of the year when he suffered a high ankle sprain at home against Atlanta that kept him out for the next seven games. He finished with a passer rating of 88.5, highest among the Browns three quarterbacks (which also included Jake Delhomme). Wallace was under center for a 23-20 victory over Cincinnati.

After the season, Wallace said the West Coast offense would be a good fit for the Browns.

''It would be great. I think in this division it could be good, and with the guys that we have offensively for that system,'' he said. "I know because I’ve been in the system, we went to the Super Bowl in that system and we have the talent to do that on offense. So getting the right guy in here to run that offense, as the offensive coordinator, whoever it may be, I think it’d be good.''